IBM DemandTec for Retail V12.4 provides key enhancements based on your needs across the entire portfolio with an emphasis on franchise and express pricing for more extensive price management, better rules management for improved price optimization, and significant improvements of the handling of product groups and product categories for better assortment optimization.

IBM DemandTec for Retail V12.4 portfolio has made a number of improvements. Highlights include:

From a reporting perspective, the Rule Relaxation report is enhanced to display transfer price and associated relaxations, and franchise related warnings and errors can be reviewed in the Scenario Warnings and Errors report.

Users can create a single Express® Price run that spans categories and divisions since the user interface and workflow is enhanced. Along with cross category and divisional functionality, users are able to override costs to understand the impact to gross margin within the run. Users can update prices within the user interface or via Excel imports.

Rules Based Price scenarios can now be scheduled via the Task Scheduler so they will automatically be kicked off based on user entered schedules. Once the task is created, the application will look for Rules Based Price scenarios, marked In Production, duplicate the scenario, and submit it for processing.

IBM DemandTec Promotion Execution

Users can create marketing messages and attach master copy and images. Once these are attached to an event, the marketing messages can be swapped out to create versions. The master copy and images will default to the event and then can be edited as required. The marketing message content is utilized when calculating page versions, included in version reporting, and output in the XML that is used in IBM DemandTec Publishing Manager.

Administrators can create a marketing message hierarchy in which the messages can be stored. Different nodes in this hierarchy can be assigned to specific users to allow them to access the marketing messages in events. This security is also used on the page space via assigning one or more nodes in the hierarchy to the ad position.

IBM DemandTec Promotion Planning

Users can load and update information into IBM DemandTec product groups or location groups that are created and maintained in their systems via a new Openlink data feed.

Users can add products to promotions by typing in the product key rather than going to a search screen and selecting.

A scheduled task is added that deletes all promotions marked as soft deleted from the database, a regular data maintenance process that reduces table sizes and improves performance. The benefit to you is that support and operations overhead is reduced since this was previously a manual process.

Users can manually enter and save a forecast or override it in the Financial UI for selected levels of the product hierarchy and time periods. This user-entered forecast exists alongside any predicted forecasts created by the system.

IBM DemandTec Promotion Optimization

Users can save a predicted forecast in the Financial UI for selected levels of the product hierarchy and time periods. This Saved Forecast will exist alongside future predicted forecasts.

IBM DemandTec Markdown Optimization

IBM DemandTec Markdown Optimization is enhanced to take into account future advertisements during the markdown period. Users can input the ad information on the application UI and the effect of the ad will be included in the markdown forecast.

IBM DemandTec Deal Management for Retail

Once a deal has been submitted, as long as new locations are not added, the vendor will no longer be allowed to delete deals. If a vendor does not want a deal, they can still cancel the deal. This will flow through to the systems and maintain the integrity of the deal status and details.

This solution has the ability to configure retail-use only fields, retailer-specific fields, rules, and secondary approval process.

IBM DemandTec Shopper Insights for Retail

Visibility control to profit figures are added allowing a retailer to hide all profit measures from their own users. In addition, the Flexible Segment Compare dashboard enables users to compare the purchase dynamics of selected products across different shopper segments. Product Development Indices are also added allowing users to compare the importance of products to different shopper segments (in comparison to other products).

IBM DemandTec Assortment Optimization for Retail

Users can create static Product Groups, which span product types (for example, stocked, market, and new). All Product Group types can then be used in Product Group Actions, which allow the user to designate a specific optimization action for all of the products in a Product Group.

These actions include the ability to mark a Product Group as either In, Out, or Maintain. The behavior is as follows:

By marking a Product Group as In, all items in the group will be included in the final assortment such that stocked items which are already in the assortment will be protected, and market and new items which are not already in the assortment will then be added to the assortment.

By marking a Product Group as Out, all items in the group will be excluded from the final assortment such that stocked items will be deleted, and market and new items will be ignored.

By marking a Product Group as Maintain, all items in the group will maintain their current distribution such that Stocked items will be protected, and market and new items will be ignored.

For certain product categories, retailers may need to enforce specific relationships between items in the category. A collection is one such type of relationship where all of the items in a given collection should either be included or excluded from the assortment. In such cases, the retailer will not carry a partial collection or only some of the items in a collection. The Collections Rule in Assortment Optimization allows the user to enforce these types of relationships where Product Groups can be designated as Collections and will then be evaluated by the optimization as a whole, rather than each individual product being evaluated separately. The Collections Rule is enforced below Product Actions such that if any items in a collection have conflicting actions (for example, one item is designated as In while another item in the collection is designated as Out by the user), then the Collection will not be maintained. The Product Actions within a Collection must not be in conflict in order for the Collection relationship to be maintained.

Two new types of filters are available for users to control which products are included in the optimization Consideration Set. The first is the Stocked All Commodities Volume filter, which provides users more granular control over the minimum All Commodities Volume threshold to be applied to stocked products. This threshold can be set differently for three product types - stocked products with sales, stocked products without sales, and products that have sales but are not on the planogram. The second filter allows users to control which product types from Other Store Clusters are included in the Consideration Set. They can choose to include or exclude stocked products with sales in Other Store Clusters, stocked products without sales in Other Store Clusters, and products that have sales but are not on the planogram in Other Store Clusters.

Accessibility by people with disabilities

A US Section 508 Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) containing details on accessibility compliance can be requested at

With the industry's most sophisticated merchandising optimization solutions, IBM DemandTec offerings are uniquely qualified to empower leading retailers across the globe to achieve their goals through strategy simulation and execution, ensuring that they offer the right products at the right price to the right customers. Our solutions are based on the industry's most powerful consumer demand science providing predictive insight that enables retailers to make better price, promotion, and assortment decisions.

Specified operating environment

Hardware requirements

Software requirements

IBM DemandTec for Retail V12.4 offers increased data protection, scalability, and performance for all its database intensive operations which, based on IBM DB2® technology, is designed to manage data more effectively and efficiently. Greater availability is delivered through enhancements such as online, automated database reorganization. In addition, the increased scalability and the ability to leverage the latest in server technology helps deliver increased performance of backup and recovery processes.

For details about software requirements for IBM DemandTec for Retail V12.4, visit

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The following are supporting programs licensed with the products:

IBM InfoSphere® DataStage®

IBM DB2

For additional information, refer to Usage restrictions in the Terms and conditions section of this announcement, or to the license information document that is available on the IBM Software License Agreement website

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Packaging

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Currency Value Unit (CVU)

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Million Revenue Conversion Units (MRCUs) are a unit of measure by which the IBM SaaS can be obtained. A Revenue Conversion Unit is a currency-independent measure of a revenue amount relevant to the licensing of the IBM SaaS. Currency-specific revenue amounts must be converted into MRCUs in accordance with the table located at

Sufficient entitlements must be obtained for the number of MRCUs required to cover the Revenue processed or managed by the IBM SaaS during the measurement period specified in Customer's Proof of Entitlement (PoE) or Transaction Document. The following products are licensed using the Currency Value Unit (CVU) charge metric:

IBM DemandTec Price Management

IBM DemandTec Price Optimization

IBM DemandTec Shopper Insights for Retail

IBM DemandTec Assortment Optimization for Retail

IBM DemandTec Deal Management for Retail

For the purpose of CVU licensing, the Monetary Amount is the maximum cumulative amount of Total Sales of the Originating Customer at the Originating Site processed or managed by the program in any twelve consecutive months. Total Sales are sales from products sold to end consumers through all channels. The Designated Measure is one hundred million CUs.

Currency Value Unit conversion table:

From 1 to 2 CUs, 1.00 CVUs per CU

From 3 to 5 CUs, 2 CVUs plus 0.90 CVUs per CU above 2

From 6 to 10 CUs, 4.7 CVUs plus 0.80 CVUs per CU above 5

From 11 to 20 CUs, 8.7 CVUs plus 0.70 CVUs per CU above 10

From 21 to 35 CUs, 15.7 CVUs plus 0.60 CVUs per CU above 20

From 36 to 50 CUs, 24.7 CVUs plus 0.45 CVUs per CU above 35

For more than 50 CUs, 31.45 CVUs plus 0.30 CVUs per CU above 50

The following products are also licensed using the CVU charge metric:

IBM DemandTec Promotion Optimization

IBM DemandTec Promotion Execution

IBM DemandTec Promotion Planning

For the purpose of CVU licensing, the Monetary Amount is the maximum cumulative amount of Total Sales of the Customer of the Originating Customer at the Originating Site generated by sales of Promoted Items processed or managed by the program in any twelve consecutive months. Total Sales are sales from all products sold to end consumers through all channels. Promoted Items are products that are temporarily featured or discounted or sold on any form of promotion, including without limitation, a temporary price reduction (TPR), mention in an advertisement or circular, display in a secondary location of a physical store or on the main page of a website and coupons. The Designated Measure is ten million CUs.

For the purpose of CVU licensing, the Monetary Amount is the maximum cumulative amount of Total Sales of the Originating Customer at the Originating Site generated by sales of Markdown Items processed or managed by the program in any twelve consecutive months. Total Sales are sales from products sold to end consumers through all channels. Markdown Items are products sold on a permanent price reduction, generally aimed at clearing out excess supply, which includes clearance sales. The Designated Measure is 1 million CUs.

Currency Value Unit conversion table:

From 1 to 2 CUs, 1.00 CVUs per CU

From 3 to 5 CUs, 2 CVUs plus 0.90 CVUs per CU above 2

From 6 to 10 CUs, 4.7 CVUs plus 0.80 CVUs per CU above 5

From 11 to 20 CUs, 8.7 CVUs plus 0.70 CVUs per CU above 10

From 21 to 35 CUs, 15.7 CVUs plus 0.60 CVUs per CU above 20

From 36 to 50 CUs, 24.7 CVUs plus 0.45 CVUs per CU above 35

For more than 50 CUs, 31.45 CVUs plus 0.30 CVUs per CU above 50

Passport Advantage

New products being announced in this release

IBM DemandTec for Retail on Cloud (5725-H33)

Part
Program name and Description number
IBM DEMANDTEC® FOR RETAIL FOR ADD APP SET UP D0W9BLL

IBM DemandTec Managed Cloud Delivery (5725-H63)

Part
Program name and Description number
IBM DEMANDTEC MANAGED CLOUD DELIVERY FOR D0W9ALL
ADD APP SET UP

Previously announced products now being made available in the People's Republic of China (PRC)

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Limited warranty applies

Yes

Limited warranty

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Software Subscription and Support applies

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Other support

Passport Advantage

Variable charges apply

No

Educational allowance available

Subscription

This offering is governed by the IBM International Passport Advantage Agreement or IBM International Passport Advantage Express Agreement, as applicable, and IBM SaaS Terms of Use. This document references the IBM DemandTec Terms of Use, which outlines the terms of this offering.

Technical support

Technical support is included with subscriptions purchased through Passport Advantage and Passport Advantage Express , and is provided for this IBM SaaS offering and enabling software, as applicable, during the Subscription Period as set forth in the Terms of Use Agreement. For details and to request support, visit

Terms of use

Limited warranty applies

Yes

Limited warranty

IBM warrants that IBM DemandTec for Retail on Cloud will conform to the specifications contained in the Terms of Use. Such specifications may be supplied only in the English language, unless required by local law, without the possibility of contractual waiver or limitation. The warranty will not apply to the extent that there has been misuse, accident, modification, unsuitable physical or operating environment, or improper maintenance by Customer or a third party, or failure or damage caused by a product for which IBM is not responsible. IBM does not warrant uninterrupted or error-free operation of the service or that IBM will correct all program defects. You are responsible for the results obtained from the use of the service.

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Other support

System i Software Maintenance applies

Variable charges apply

Educational allowance available

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Terms of use

IBM products and services which are announced and available in your country can be ordered under the applicable standard agreements, terms, conditions, and prices in effect at the time. IBM reserves the right to modify or withdraw this announcement at any time without notice. This announcement is provided for your information only. Additional terms of use are located at